196 AUSTRALIAN PICTURES. 



uneatable by horse or ass, or, I believe, by camel, and apt to wound the feet 

 of the unfortunate animal that journeys over it. 



Different indeed from these treeless, waterless steppes are the valleys 

 and mountains of the seaboard. In these regions, protected from hot winds 

 and favoured by a heavy rainfall, we have a luxuriant and elegant vegeta- 

 tion. Beginning with the gullies of the Dandenong ranges, near Melbourne, 

 the traveller can proceed from fairy scene to fairy scene along the coast to 

 far-away Carpentaria and Papua, the vegetation preserving its identity, and 

 yet slowly changing from a sub-tropical to a tropical character. In the 

 Victorian region there are rivulets of clear water hidden from sight by the 

 tree-ferns which flourish on their banks. Journeying northwards, the vegeta- 

 tion thickens. Parasitical ferns — the staghorns of the conservatory — depend 

 from every branch. Palm-trees make their appearance, the noble Livistonia 

 attaining in suitable places a height of eighty feet. The musk-tree and the 

 Pittosporum scent the air, and lovely twining plants help to form an im- 

 penetrable foliage. On reaching the ranges of New South Wales, the 

 luxuriance is found to have further developed. From some hill-top you 

 gaze upon a verdant lawn gay with flowers and studded with shrubs. 

 Descending, you find that the surface is a vegetable canopy formed by stout 

 and hardy creepers and climbers that spread from tree to tree, only the tops 

 of the lofty eucalypts appearing above this mid-air canopy. Lower down, 

 fern-trees and cabbage-palms form a second roof, while the soil supports an 

 undergrowth of mosses, lichens and ferns. 



But the gum-tree is as distinctive of Australia as are the emu and the 

 kangaroo. It pleases Australians greatly that their country contains the 

 ' tallest tree in the world.' For years it was believed that Nature had done 

 her utmost in the big trees of California, but experts and visitors admit that 

 this belief must be abandoned. The two countries have the issue to them- 

 selves ; but the Sequoia gigantea has had to retire in favour of the Eticalyptus 

 amygdalina, or giant gum. The following list of generally accepted heights 

 will show how completely the indigenous vegetation of other lands is put out 

 of court : — 



The elm 



The oak 



Pinus insignis ...... 



Himalayan cedar . 



Sequoia gigantea, or ' big tree ' of California 



pAicalyptus amygdalina, or giant gum . 



60 feet to 80 feet. 



60 feet to 100 feet. 



60 feet to 100 feet. 

 200 feet. 



200 feet to 325 feet. 

 250 feet to 480 feet. 



The giant gum is rich in a peculiar volatile oil, and it supplies a 

 splendid timber for shingles, palings, &c. Hence, in all accessible parts, the 

 fine specimens are doomed to early destruction by the splitter. The wood- 

 man does not spare the tree. The more huge the round, straight, polished, 

 and beautiful stem, the more likely he is to mark it as his own. Confident 



